Staving off the Arctic chill, We Energies customers used a record amount of natural gas this week, even after the Milwaukee utility cut off gas service to 40 of its large business customers.

The utility said Wednesday its customers used a record 1.92 million dekatherms of natural gas between 9 a.m. Monday and 9 a.m. Tuesday.

That was about 7% more than the 1.788 million dekatherms the utility supplied to customers during a cold snap in 2009, said We Energies spokesman Brian Manthey.

To ensure there would be no supply problems, amid predictions of dangerous below-zero wind chill temperatures around the state, We Energies cut off supply to about 40 large businesses starting Monday morning.

Those businesses were without natural gas from We Energies for 48 hours, until 9 a.m. Wednesday, Manthey said. Those customers pay low rates throughout the year in exchange for giving the utility the ability to shut off natural gas service when it needs to.

This was the first time since 1996 that the utility had cut off service to businesses who are on those special rates.

The businesses were cut off as a precaution. Many of those cut off were in northern and western parts of Wisconsin that had wind chill readings below the Milwaukee area.

“We were able to keep any supply situations from happening,” he aid

“You didn’t know going in how cold will it get and you want to make sure you plan for some worst-case scenarios, and make sure that you’re able to meet the demands and not have any disruptions elsewhere on the system,” he said.

About Thomas Content

Thomas Content covers energy, clean technology and sustainable business. A series he co-wrote on energy and climate change won top honors in 2008 from the National Press Foundation.

Energy Business News

EnSync Energy Systems has shipped a utility-scale energy storage system to South Korea, the Menomonee Falls company said.

The 500-kilowatt-hour system incorporates enough battery power for four or more hours of discharge, using EnSync’s zinc bromide flow batteries as well as power electronics and converters.

Formerly known as ZBB Energy, EnSync is focused on smaller energy storage systems for commercial buildings such as projects it's built in Hawaii in recent years. But it's also been working on larger energy storage systems.